Friday, June 13, 2014

Edge Of Tomorrow

Director Doug Liman’ Edge Of Tomorrow is a
taut, action-packed thriller with a unique plot and an interesting brand of
alien vermin that has infested Western Europe and is preparing to move east and
west over the Earth.

Tom Cruise plays against type as Major Cage,
who is responsible for PR and whose only combat training was in ROTC.When he tries to get out of being embedded with
the troops going into battle with the aliens, General Brigham (Brendan Gleeson)
has him forced into the invasion as one of the troopers.Killed within minutes of the fighting, Cage
is caught in a time loop and forced to re-live the day over and over.

Why that is is cleverly revealed in the deft
screenplay written by Christopher McQuarrie, Jez Butterworth and John-Henry
Butterworth.

While it would be easy to compare the plot to
Groundhog
Day, the stakes are higher and the best action happens when Cage comes
out of the loop.

Cruise, eventually, comes into his super-hero
form and is matched all the way by Emily Blunt, who is absolutely fabulous as
the heroine of a previous invasion, when she was caught in the time loop, as
well.

Doug Liman is a master of action, but his
true mastery is in being able to keep the viewer clear as to what is happening
and why.

About Me

Brian Porzak: I am a cinephile who likes to view films with a live audience. My taste runs the gamut, including indies, studio films, foreign films and most all genres. Because I see so many films, friends often ask me what to see. So, I thought I'd blog about what is worth seeing or not. As a writer/filmmaker myself, I hope to give a more uplifting perspective than the typical critic. Filmmaking is tremendously difficult. Just because some problems might exist in a particular work does not, necessarily, destroy its enjoyability and I think that is necessary to point out to would-be viewers.
See www.Aix-en-Film.com